Mijares Livid With WBC For Giving Santa Cruz a Voluntary

By Rafael Soto

Former world champion Cristian "Diamante" Mijares is extremely upset after learning that the World Boxing Council has given WBC super bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz the ability to make a volunary defense. Mijares is the mandatory contender to the title. Santa Cruz captured the title last month with a third round TKO of Victor Terrazas.

Mijares says the WBC issued a letter back in May to all parties, ordering the Terrazas-Santa Cruz winner to face him.

"It is an injustice that the WBC has decided to give an optional fight Leo Santa Cruz, when they officially granted me the right to face the winner of Santa Cruz against Victor Terrazas. I have the document where the WBC endorsed that fact and now they say something else," Mijares said.

"I accepted the option to wait for the winner of that fight. The fight already happened and there was a winner. Now it is only fitting that I go directly to the world title and the WBC agreed with me, but now I have to wait for a voluntary defense to get done. I'm sure there will be a ratification of the commitment they have with me, since I'm the official challenger for the super bantamweight title. I've been a champion of the WBC in other weights and I've made eight WBC titles defenses in my career."